Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Thursday June 24, 2010 @09:15AM
from the terrible-ideas-make-me-sad dept.

GMGruman writes "In the name of national security, the feds are considering a law that would let the government turn off the Internet — or at least order broadband providers and ISPs to disable access. InfoWorld blogger Bill Snyder explains why this is a bad idea. Does the US really want to be like China or Iran?"

"We cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government realizes the importance of protecting our cyber resources." -Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)

It seems that members of the senate get access to some crazy-good weed... how high do you have to be to say "cyber 9/11"? WTF does "cyber 9/11" mean?? Are terrorists going to fly a plane into internet tubes and clog them?!

Thank you! I too am getting tired of people claiming that anything you like and don't want to stop doing is "an addiction".

For example. The fact that I play Team Fortress 2 a couple hours a day and get upset when it goes down doesn't make me addicted to it. It makes it an activity I enjoy doing with friends and do not like being deprived of. If I cut off all contact with the outside world, miss school and work to play and start selling my possessions to pay the internet bill so I can keep playing, THEN you can call me addicted.

Part of the problem is this thing people keep trotting out that "THING X causes brain activity similar to people on cocaine". Yes. Cocaine directly stimulates the pleasure center of your brain. Anything you enjoy will cause this same reaction. Seeing a movie you like causes brain activity similar to being on cocaine. Finishing an assignment you've spent 3 weeks working on will cause brain activity similar to being on cocaine. Watching a dude wipe out of his skateboard then slide nut first down a rail will cause brain activity similar to being hit in the nuts among guys... followed by brain activity similar to being on cocaine. Dopamine is dopamine is dopamine.

Dude, it'd be terrible if virtual terrorists flew a virtual plane into a virtual building and caused thousands of virtual deaths of the virtual citizens. Imagine all the damage it would do to the economy of that virtual little world in there? We must protect these virtual people at all costs.